Playing Catch

Yeah, going through this exercise every few days of trying to scrounge up some modest production in the lineup is a chore. It makes you appreciate that they are at least thinking outside the box by getting guys like Perkins, Tapia, and Jones.

Wow. That is a sweet, but scary tweet. What a successful organization. I hate them so much.

I don't mind at all when they draft shortstops, as in, typically, long, lean, athletic, big armed shortstops. But I don't understand the value of drafting 2B-only guys (Robert Moore, Dylan O'Rae), as those players are just as limited defensively as a big, burly first baseman.

After some consideration, I don't want to trade Chourio for Alonso. With this said, there is a school of thought that says you want to trade a player when they are at their peak value. While I'm not predicting this, it's possible this is perfect time to trade Chourio.

You have to admit, though, in spite of the objective evidence, that this is, indeed, hard to believe. According to my subjective eye-test, he's much, much better out there this season, so I get it. It probably means many teams are putting their bats out in left this season, or that if he played for the bottom-half of the league, he may be a below average CFer.

Some former Phillies executive stated on MLB network yesterday that the Mets should trade Alonso, who has yet to sign an extension, but has team control through 2024. Anyone on board with selling Chourio+ to get Alonso? I probably would be. (But I'm sure this would just be Stearns plotting in his dark corner of the Front Office to get his future employer the transcendent teenager!).

Wow. That's a lot of bile-soaked red meat for Blighty, 888 and others to feast on! "reflexively and blindly support every move" "simplistic data like WAR" "simple single" "fans outsmarting the GM" "obviously a stupid pick" "The comedy is the genius fan brigade who will defend Rowdy to death because [counting stats] don't matter" "horrific hit tool" "move Yelich to first" "stubbornly and incorrectly eschew corner IFers in the draft and foreign market has really caught up with them" As one of those who are probably in the camp of obsequious Arnold defenders, I may as well comment. I think I'll start with this. Baseball is hard. Hitting a baseball is hard. Finding players that hit baseballs better than others is hard. I support most of the moves that this front office has made because most of their moves have worked out. Not all of them, but most of them. Coming into the season, any GM in baseball would think it was reasonable to expect a 28-year old Rowdy to replicate his above average offensive production from 2022, including finishing 2nd on the team with 89 RBIs (including a team-leading 35 home runs). They would also believe it reasonable to want to keep that player, as Tellez is on an inexpensive contract and already on the roster. This does not equate with defending Rowdy to death, nor does it suggest that Rowdy's first half stats have been good enough. They haven't been. He's been really bad, and has had a big role in the Brewers' really bad offense. Arnold should look to improve his 1st base options if they want to stay in the hunt. Ray Montgomery SHOULD have been fired for picking Ray instead of waiting all the way until the 4th round to pick... Corbin Burnes. While I am intrigued by the possibility that Yelich could one day play a serviceable 1st base, this possibility is not necessarily a slam dunk option. For all we know, Yelich is a butcher in the infield. And why would the Brewers want to make room for Chourio since it is so obvious that the foreign market has really caught up with them? Any finally, Arnold has only been responsible for roster construction for 8.5 months. We have no idea what opinions he had on the decisions of Stearns. For all we know he hated every good move Stearns made, or perhaps, he was the mastermind behind every good move. For all we know, Stearns wanted Esteury Ruiz to be the Brewers starting CFer so bad that he traded Hader for him despite Arnold's misgivings, so Arnold quickly moved on Ruiz to get William Contreras. We just don't know.

Tyrone Taylor's IL stint has to be coming to a close soon. I wonder if the Crew activate him before the break, and send down Wiemer (who is 1 for his last 28), taking advantage of the extended break to count as time not on MLB roster. edit: I see Damuelle thinking the same thing in the ML forum.

He wouldn't help versus lefties at all. His splits are pretty stark.

Just a note for yourself, and anyone else that may be having this issue, is that in order to avoid the "double-space" when one hits Enter/Return, hold down the shift key... So, SHIFT+Return will single-space your lines (I learned this with my work software).

In all sports, the common fan is mysteriously priced out of going to games. I can never understand it, and am always asking, "Wouldn't they want me coming in to buy concessions instead of having empty seats?" All I can figure is that some Brewers actuary has convinced Rick Schlesinger that indeed, they would prefer the empty seats. Perhaps there is some hidden benefit in terms of staffing/supplying the stadium, I dunno. But I suppose that we, a flock of golden geese, will continue to faithfully follow our beloved sports teams anyway.

Looking at his splits, Black probably won't be helping the big league team much versus lefties, FWIW.

Tellez is batting .153 in June with a 2.7% BB rate. It's been the same issue all season. Number 2 spot in the order - 30th in MLB (64 wRC+) Number 3 spot in the order - 29th in MLB (76 wRC+) Most of the other spots in the order are also, as one would expect, below average. But when the other team completely neuters the heart of the order, the offense is going to stink. As others have noted, until the players that are probably not going anywhere (e.g. Adames and Tellez, namely) hit better, the Crew will continue to scuffle.

If not for the Frelick/Mitchell/Taylor injuries, I think the Crew would look a lot different right now. I think the plan was to have Yelich/Tellez/Contreras share DH duties and Frelick/Taylor/Mitchell/Wiemer/Anderson share OF duties. The team would have been elite defensively (it's still very good right now, but that would have put them up there with Arizona), and while perhaps the offense would continue to lack HR punch, I think the pressure on the basepaths would have resulted in a few more big innings with SBs, errors, back-to-back doubles and the like. Counsell was up front in the spring about having to rely on rookies this season, and I don't think that mid-to-long term organizational strategy has changed. I would be very surprised if any of the top 5 to 8 prospects in the system are traded, If they want to try and improve the offense at the deadline, I think they'll trade from their newfound depth in the lower minors. They have some really intriguing youngsters that are going to be getting mentioned as "top 30 prospects," in the system sooner rather than later.

Looking through some monthly splits, it looks like there's a number of players that had poor to middlin' April/Mays, but have had strong Junes. In particular, it's nice to see 2021 prospect darlings, Hedbert Perez and Joe Gray Jr. with strong months of June. Gasser's improvement lately, too, has been very very important to see.

Yeah, they're on a nice little run here, and if I were a Reds fan, I'd have boundless optimism and excitement. But moving prospect-pieces for pitching is a difficult dance to master. A lot can go wrong. In addition, it's still pretty early with their young guys. There are plenty of hot-shot rookies (ahem, Hiura), that come up and mash for a few months before the league figures them out.

I totally agree. It makes me wonder if this cutter/slider-happy league is making life tough on many platoon hitters. The other day, (I forget which game), the team featured a bunch of righties in the lineup against Burnes due to his cutter.

He must have gotten a nice run up for that corker.

IMO, that has been the biggest difference with Yelich. I think the shift rules have upped his offense slightly, but his defense is markedly improved from last year based on the eye-test.

Would having a unique contract that allowed him more days off during the season be feasible? Do we think that would be detrimental to the team as a whole? Probably. An organization can't not have the leadership on site as much as possible.

A lot of folks here have stated that they'd be okay with Yelich at his annual salary if he returned to his Miami numbers. He has basically done that. Thanks in large part to his league average defense, he's been just an all-around very good starting left fielder. Keep it up, Yeli!

I'm not ready for Winker (even though I suspect y'all are correct, and he'll be back soon). Singleton has suffered with a lot of bad luck. It's only been 28 plate appearances, but he's had .176 BABIP and it seems like every borderline ball/strike has been called a strike (the zone last night was something else). Winker's start with the Brewers has scarred me. With that said, their games are nearly identical, except for their position.

Valerio looks to be up to about 5'7" judging by that video. Say what one will, there will never be a 5'5" MLB player.

Holy smokes. Looking at the A-ball leaderboards is very, very interesting with regard to Adams' standing as a prospect. I'm thinking he'd be getting a lot of national notice with even an average BABIP. If the scouting reports on his arm, legs, and hands are accurate, he'd be a prototypical 3B prospect.

Okay, are we just gunna sit here and not point out that this might be the early-season leader for the 1st annual, "Article Title of the Year Award"?